Seton Castle Restoration Progress Report

January 2005

It’s hard to believe that a little over a year ago we started the restoration process. Many hours of hard work, (as well as a few hours of fun!) have been proffered to this project from volunteers in the Santa Fe community and as far away as New Jersey, our architects, the Seton family, county officials and Academy staff. We continue to be thankful for the support that the community has given to us.

We are about to embark on the next phase of the project – the actual restoration! The Castle and property are cleared, the architectural plans are completed, permitting has been secured from the county and we have selected Wolf Corporation, a local Santa Fe construction company, to be the contractor’s for the restoration. We feel they will be a great addition to our restoration team that also includes Academy staff and Spears Architects.

The cataloging of the artwork is also nearing completion. David Witt, curator of the Harwood Museum has been leading a project to assess the condition and importance of Seton’s paintings, pen and ink drawings and sketches in our collection. We are now working with a paper expert to help us determine how to preserve the works on paper. In the coming months, we will also be gathering similar information on the oil paintings, pottery and Seton’s vast collection of books.

In order to celebrate the completion of this stage of the project and welcome the next phase, we will be holding a groundbreaking ceremony at the Castle at 2:30 PM on January 21, 2005. We will have a brief ceremony to commemorate the official groundbreaking. Also we’ll have the plans to share with you and some tea and coffee to keep warm in the Castle.

We are also pleased to announce that the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance has selected the Kiva and Hogan at Seton Castle as one of only eight sites in New Mexico to be added to the 2005 list of New Mexico’s Most Endangered Places. We hope that this recognition of their cultural and historical significance will raise awareness about the importance of preserving them and lend weight to our efforts to raise the necessary funding.

Please keep apprised of our progress on this page as we begin this exciting phase of the project.